Duluth, but No Souls

Scott had to meet with a client in Duluth and Meadow was off from school. So another opportunity to take a little trip.

I'm going to be shooting 360s for Visit Duluth this winter. Going to be photographing Spirit Mountain, around town and  Bentleyville, of course!

While Scott was out scouting I walked with the kids over to Toasty's for lunch. Meadow thought she ordered a hot dog, but it ended up being a hot dog cut up in a grilled cheese sandwich. She was not pleased.

She hates melted cheese.

Unless it's mac and cheese.

On our walk back to Blake's we did some geocaching. We found a cache along Chester Creek. Meadow wanted to play in the water until she found out how cold it was.

Brrr...

Back at Blake's, we dressed up Zissou in a vampire outfit from Chelsea.

This would be the only time we'd get dressed up all weekend. We had thought it was All Souls weekend, but we were wrong. Whoops.

It's always the weekend after Halloween, but this year the moved it back a week.

We wanted to get fish fry and were going to go to the one by Blake's land. Daniel and Blake suggested Bridgeman's up by the mall and that's where we went. 

The food was good, but the atmosphere felt off.

Can't go wrong with fish and chips.

Back at Blake's again Blake and Meadow played their new favorite game, Mad Libs.

Good morning. Since being in school Meadow is much better at getting up in the morning.

Except when she gets up for school. 

Blake made us breakfast burritos.

While Theo napped we did some Wii Fit.

These two are obsessed.

Don't knock until you try it.

After Theo woke up we went for a hike at Hartley Nature Center. Meadow got to carry the leash for Zissou. She thought it was the best thing ever. "This is my first time doing this!"

We clipped his leash to her backpack to help pull her up hills.

She actually unbuckled it after a few minutes, but kept walking the ZZ (as Meadow calls him).

Of course we did some geocaching while we were here.

Meadow found a pink one.

Blake mentioned that if he took the Superior Hiking Trail by his house all the way to his land it would take 4 hours. I see a hiking trip in our future.

Up the hill to another cache. I just tag along and enjoy the walk.

Meadow found the next one.

This one had a plastic banana and toy car that Meadow traded for.

I always try to talk Brooke into moving up to Duluth while we're here. She says it would lose it's magic. That's probably true.

Meadow even said on the way up that she wanted to live here.

Theo likes Duluth too.

"I can see the whole world from up here!"

She actually said that. 

We took a rest for a little while.

Before going back down hill Meadow had us play a few rounds of "Ring-Around-The-Rosie."

And then back down the hill we went.

Next we headed to Lincoln Park for lunch at the Dovetail Cafe in the Duluth Folk School.

Meadow had a meltdown, but our food was good.

Afterwards we went over to Two Loons finally. It's owned by my North Minneapolis preservationist buddy, Joel and his wife Lori. We've been meaning to stop by forever.

The store was a mix of antiques and handmade items.

He's going to open up the other side of the building soon and feature antique furniture.

We then walked over to the brand new Ursa Minor Brewing. When we walked in we noticed they had brick oven pizza and pretzels. Oops. I guess we could have had lunch here.

I'd seen this place on Instagram and it looked promising. Then when I was scouting I saw that it was actually open.

Scott and I shared a flight. We asked the bartender to pick them out for us.

Meadow got her root beer in a fancy glass again.

This place had games and toys.

And beer of course. Lot's of beer. (Actually just two pints.) By the time we left I was a tad tipsy.

We sobered up at the Lincoln Park playground.

We'd never been here before. It's a beautiful park.

Then Blake took us by the huge rock.

 We had promised Meadow rock climbing.

When we came back Blake, Meadow and I picked up some groceries for dinner while Daniel played the Elder Scrolls.

Meadow chomped on an apple. I love when apples are fresh and crunchy in fall.

We had mac and cheese pizza, nachos and cucumbers for dinner. It was good.

The perfect mix of food after hiking and beer.

The next morning Meadow joined Theo in bed.

She'd been begging to do this the night before. In the morning she crawled in.

After cleaning their living room we made a decision on breakfast.

We decided to walk over to Burrito Union. No casino buffet this time. They had a deal on bloody Mary's and burritos.

We didn't know this until we got there, but it was a heck of a deal. I still got a beer. They serve Fitger's here, which is great.

This is the second Bloody Mary that I've ever ordered.

Another fun weekend in Duluth even though our plans changed.